Many apologies for my online absence – my computer broke on Tuesday and so I have been unable to do any blogging. My television was also broken for the duration and so I enjoyed several technology-free days. I highly recommend that you indulge in short breaks from the media as it is amazing how much more can be fitted into each day.
Normal service will resume shortly.
It’s April Fools’ Day so I thought I’d test your ability to spot the facts from the fools.
Five of the following statements are true, five have been invented by me.
Charles Dickens once had his clothes ripped off by fans.
TRUE! He is apparently the only author who has had his clothes ripped off by fans!
David Mitchell spent one month shearing sheep in Australia.
FALSE! He has travelled around a lot, but I invented this one.
Haruki Murakami used to run a jazz club.
TRUE! Murakami ran a jazz club until 1981 – it was called Peter Cat. This page contains many more Murakami facts that are well worth browsing.
D.H. Lawrence could play the trombone
FALSE!
H.G. Wells married his grandmother.
FALSE! He actually married his cousin!
Marilynne Robinson has a pet snake called Jake.
FALSE!
Chris Cleave grew up in Cameroon.
TRUE! He went to a French school in Cameroon.
Stephanie Meyer has a black belt in karate.
FALSE!
The man who registered José Saramago’s birth was drunk and so wrote his name and date of birth down incorrectly.
TRUE! I discovered this when researching a blog post about him last year. He is a fascinating man!
J.K Rowling once taught English in Portugal.
TRUE! She moved there and in 1992, she married Jorge Arantes, a Portuguese television journalist.
March has been quite a strange month reading-wise. I seem to be finding it easier to give up on books and so the number of ones that I’ve failed to finish has ballooned. I am finding that I am enjoying the books that I do decide to finish a lot more and so am spending an increasing amount of time reading – although this may also be due to the fact that my television is broken at the moment!
The Report by Jessica Francis Kane 
This Blinding Absence of Light – Tahar Ben Jelloun 
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin
The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman
Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty 
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius 
Great House by Nicole Krauss DNF
The Swimmer by Roma Tearne
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
The London Train by Tessa Hadley
Singing in the Shrouds by Ngaio Marsh DNF
The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli DNF
The Still Point by Amy Sackville DNF
The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter DNF
Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman DNF
Tony and Susan by Austin M. Wright DNF
The Orange Prize has dominated my reading for the past few weeks and will continue to do so during April. I only have six books left to sample, but am now waiting for copies of these to arrive at the library. I’m lucky that my library system has decided to order copies of the entire Orange longlist, but I don’t know how long it will take them to arrive. I haven’t had much luck with the Oranges this year and so am in no rush to complete them – I’ll just try them as and when they turn up at the library.
I have also found it difficult to stick to reading just one or two books at a time. I am currently reading four different books:
The World According To Garp by John Irving 
The Periodic Table by Primo Levi
Hopefully I’ll be able to get this situation under control so that I’m back to reading just one or two books at once.
I also hope to read some of these books in April:
The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Block
The Ground is Burning by Samuel Black
How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely
Empire Of The Sun by J.G. Ballard
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother by Xinran
April is Autism Awareness Month and so I hope to put together a page of all the best books about autism. I also plan to read a few more books containing people who have the condition – starting with The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson.
I hope that you have a wonderful April!
The Man Asian Literary Prize is an annual award given to the best novel by an Asian writer. The book must be available in English, but it doesn’t matter if it was originally written in another language. The winning author is awarded USD 30,000 and the translator (if any) USD 5,000. Earlier this month the 2010 winner was revealed to be Three Sisters by Bi Feiyu
The prize was founded in 2007 and as I’ve read all of the winners I thought it might be interesting to give a brief summary of them.
You can view my full reviews by clicking on the book title.
Three Sisters gives an insight into the lives of Chinese women and is especially good at demonstrating the importance of birth order within a family. It is easy to read and packed with details of the Chinese culture. I highly recommend it as an introduction to Chinese literature.
The Boat to Redemption is a coming-of-age story focusing on a boy and his father. It has a slow pace, but the characters are captivating. This novel assumes a knowledge of Chinese culture and mythology and so I do not recommend it to those unfamiliar with the country.
Illustrado is set in the Philippines and is a complex novel exposing corruption within the country. It is highly literary and often difficult to follow, but those with the patience to piece together all the clues love it.
Wolf Totem is set on the Mongolian grasslands and describes the constant battle that the nomads have with the wolves that live there. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in wolves, but be prepared for some graphic fight scenes.
Note: Illustrado was originally written in English, but all the other winners were translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt.
I love the diversity of this prize. All the books are very different to each other and to the majority of books published in this country. They are all very well written, but before starting you never know whether the book will be gripping and easy to read, or a complex narrative packed with references to myths you’ve never heard of. I look forward to following this prize each year and hope to read more of the books which were shortlisted in previous years.
Do you follow the Man Asian Literary Prize?
Are there any books from the shortlists that I should make a special effort to read?
The Orange longlist was announced last week and I was sad to see it included several books that I had failed to complete. I thought I’d write a quick summary of the reasons I discarded each book so that you can see the issues I had and decide whether or not these problems would affect your reading enjoyment.
If you are a fan of great writing then I’m sure you will fall in love with the Orange longlist this year, but if you are like me and prefer books to have a strong narrative then I think you may be disappointed with the selection.
I have seen lots of people raving about this book and so was expecting to fall in love with it, but although I was initially impressed with the quality of the writing I quickly tired of the long descriptions and the excessive detail in every scene. There were many points when I was inwardly shouting “GET ON WITH IT!!”
But this – this was something entirely different. This had bypassed all my defenses, had slipped unnoticed past the halls of reason, like a supervirus that has become resistant to everything, and only once it had taken root in the very core of me it reared its terrifying head.
The plot was so slow and meandering that I could barely see its existence and the central theme revolving around an old desk did nothing to excite me. At p105 I realised that I didn’t care about any of the characters and so I abandoned the book. I’m sure it has a clever ending, but I’m not willing to wade through another 200 pages to discover it. If you can cope without a plot then I’m sure you’ll love this one. It is definitely a book that divides opinion.
As with her earlier book, Brixton Beach, this one got off to a fantastic start. The mysterious murder of several farm animals had me gripped to my seat, but the plot quickly lost momentum and became a typical story about asylum seekers. I felt I’d read this sort of thing many times before and as the gentle nature of the prose failed to engage me I gave up at page 77.
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
I know that lots of people will love this one (especially fans of magical realism and adult fairy tales) but I’m afraid I had problems suspending my disbelief. The mixture of real life and myth didn’t work for me and the meandering plot stretched my tolerance too far. I gave up after 160 pages.
Grace Williams Says it Loud by Emma Henderson
I’m afraid I can’t really explain why I didn’t finish this one. I just didn’t connect with the writing and found that my mind kept wandering from the page. I did skim read to the end, but I’m afraid that nothing managed to pull me back into the text.
The London Train by Tessa Hadley
Unlike all the other books I abandoned I immediately connected with the characters in this book. The first few chapters completely sucked me in, but then things started to go wrong. Or to be more precise, they failed to go right. This book contained some amazing observations of people in society, but unfortunately very little actually happened. I lost interest after I found myself reading about yet another relationship problem and gave up after about 70 pages.
From my experience of the longlist this year it is clear that the Orange judges prefer books with interesting literary styles and they are not looking a gripping plot. I am sad that I have had such a bad experience with the list so far, but hope I’ll find something to enjoy in the remaining books.
If you enjoy reading beautifully written books with a meandering/non-existent plot then I’m sure you’ll love all of them.
Are you enjoying the Orange longlist this year?
Or, are you craving a bit more action?
Last week I predicted which books would make the Orange longlist. I correctly guessed eight of them, which I thought was quite good considering that I didn’t even know which books had been submitted.
The longlisted books:
NB: DNF = Started book, but did not finish it.
My immediate thoughts on looking at the list were of disappointment. Why didn’t the outstanding The History of History by Ida Hattemer-Higgins make it? What about the quirky, entertaining When God Was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman?
I was very happy to see Room by Emma Donoghue and The Birth of Love by Joanna Kavenna, but many of the other books on the list have failed to engage me. I have tried and given up on a surprising percentage. It looks as though the Orange Prize judges all share a taste in books as I can see many similarites in style and have noticed that plot isn’t a high priority for any of them. This worries me when I think about tackling the rest of the long list.
Are any books with fantastic plots hiding in the longlist?
Have I just been unlucky in reading books with a similar style? Is the rest of the list more diverse?
I am going to try the entire longlist, but I am not going to complete them all. I love the way these prizes introduce me to many books that I haven’t heard of, but I’m no longer going to force myself to complete anything that I’m not enjoying. I’m especially looking forward to reading The Invisible Bridge, A Visit from the Goon Squad and Swamplandia!, but I am also interested in trying the ones that I haven’t heard of before.
Which books are you looking forward to reading?
What do you think of the Orange longlist?
